The Carlton D. Wall House, also known as Snowflake, is a

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

designed home in

Plymouth Township, Michigan Plymouth Township, officially the Charter Township of Plymouth, is a charter township in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 27,524 at the 2010 census. The city of Plymouth is surrounded by the township but is administ ...

. It is one of Wright's more elaborate

Usonian Usonia () is a word that was used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to the United States in general (in preference to ''America''), and more specifically to his vision for the landscape of the country, including the planning of ...

homes. In 1941, recently married Mr. and Mrs. Carlton David Wall, who were Wright's youngest clients, approached Wright to design a house for them after Carlton Wall studied Wright's architecture in college. Its form is a series of hexagons radiating from a central chimney or service core without any true right angles, with many different wings off it for a nursery, terrace, guest room and carport. The cypress and brick house came to be known as ''Snowflake'' because of the hexagonal patterns created by the diamond grid design. This was the first use of Wright's modular diamond structure in Michigan, a technique he used elsewhere when incorporating a house into a hillside. A massive brick retaining wall supports a dramatic terrace. Floor to ceiling windows, doors without

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s, and corner windows are used throughout the house. This brings the "outside in", which is the case in all Wright houses. From 1943 to 1944, Milton Horn collaborated with Wright on a wood relief mural for the house. In 1947, a bedroom wing was added to accommodate the Walls' growing family. It is located to the west of the original house. Snowflake was purchased by

Tom Monaghan Thomas Stephen Monaghan (born March 25, 1937) is an American entrepreneur who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983 to 1992. Monaghan also owns the Domino's Farms Office Park, located in the Ann Arbor Charter Tow ...

, the founder of

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...

, in 1983, and it was used on a rotating basis by executives of his corporation. It was to be part of Mr. Monaghan's Frank Lloyd Wright Study Center. In the late 1980s it was sold to the current owners who use it as their personal residence.

References

* Storrer, William Allin. ''The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, (S.281)

External links

Carlton D. Wall House "SnowFlake" - Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Buildings on Waymarking.com

Wall House on michiganmodern.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Frank Lloyd Wright buildings Houses in Wayne County, Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan